Etihad Airways wins leading Finance Awards

Etihad Airways’ finance team has continued its winning streak by landing two key awards – for best treasury team and for securing a unique US$700 million bond agreement – from the Middle East chapter of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT ME).

Last year’s landmark finance
transaction for Etihad Airways Partners’ (EAP), a brand that brings together Etihad
Airways and partner airlines, was once again recognised with a fourth
international award after being named Corporate Finance Deal of the Year.

Seen as the first joint financing deal of its
kind in the airline industry, the ground-breaking transaction was aimed at funding EAP’s expansion through capital
expenditure, fleet investment and other essential business needs. The five-year
bond agreement involved Etihad Airways, its subsidiary Etihad Airport Services
and five of the carrier’s strategic equity airline partners – airberlin, Air
Serbia, Air Seychelles, Alitalia and Jet Airways – within EAP.

The innovative deal was the fourth
success in as many months for EAP. Other awards for the same transaction have
been given by leading finance publications around the world – Emerging Europe
Middle East and Africa Bond of the Year by International Financing Review
(IFR); Debt Financing Deal of the Year Middle East by Global Transport Finance;
and Innovative Deal of the Year by Airfinance Journal.

For the second year running, the Best
Large Treasury Team of the Year accolade has been presented by ACT Middle East
to Etihad Airways for best practice. Over the years, Etihad Airways’ treasury
team has implemented and continuously improved its processes, procedures,
policies and controls, helping build the airline into one of the largest and
most successful corporates in the region with such robust systems in place.

Most recently, the treasury team struck
two major agreements for global transactional banking services that
significantly streamlined processes and reduced transactional costs for the
global airline. With Etihad Airways having over 70 banking partners worldwide,
these were reduced to just two – National Bank of Abu Dhabi as the Middle East
partner and Citi selected for other markets globally.

James Hogan, Etihad Aviation Group
President and Chief Executive Officer, said the latest awards yet again
demonstrated the tremendous hard work at the very heart of the group where
finance plays a critical role in the success of any organisation.

“We have a clear strategy to build a business model based on organic
growth and minority investments in airlines around the world that strengthen
our global network and provide greater consumer choice,” he said.

“As part of this growth, it is vital to have robust financial systems to
drive efficiency across the group and all credit to our finance team for
creating and implementing such systems to benefit Etihad Airways and our partners.”

James Rigney, Etihad Aviation Group
Chief Financial Officer, speaking after the awards ceremony in Dubai last
night, added: “The awards reflect
treasury leadership, treasury best practice and treasury acumen in developing
innovative and untested measures in today’s competitive aviation landscape. Our
successful bond transaction supported by lead advisor Goldman Sachs and both
ADS Securities and Anoa Capital generated a tremendous amount of investor talk
internationally that demonstrated the excellent work carried out by our team in
concluding the deal.”

ACT Middle East is the
region’s only professional treasury body with voting for the annual awards by
local, regional and international corporates, banks and institutional
investors.